Minkewicz – Assignment 4

Drones will be have a significant role to play for journalists in the future, if they aren’t already. Even during my internship at Spectrum News this Spring I would often here the journalists asking if they’re going to be drone certified anytime soon.

Drones offer visuals for stories that are almost impossible to capture with a camera that does not move in the air. Anything that can be seen through an aerial perspective can usually enhance a story and allow you to see it in a different way. Just like that, story showed in class about how the drought is affecting the water. That reporter could have showed pictures taken at ground level, or perhaps some type of graphic to make his point. Instead, he used a drone to capture video from that aerial perspective and it was much more captivating.

That being said, I had no idea how much regulations are in place for people to use drones. I can see it being a problem in the future where a news organization or journalist forgets to complete all those check points from the FAA and find themselves fined. It could be so easy to forget to register your aircraft with the FA, or even forget to renew it after it expires in 3 years. Having to pay a $10,000 fine because of forgetting to do something that I’m sure would take no more than 10 minutes seems silly. However, I’m sure a lot of news organizations might forget to do that.

I really believe this is only the beginning for this technology in the journalism field. I’m looking forward to seeing what other possibilities will come from it.